The present invention relates generally to palletized loads and pallets therefor, and in particular relates to a modularized unit load and pallet therefor.
Palletized loads of rectangular objects are common in the prior art. Generally, these palletized loads comprise a plurality of rectangular objects stacked in horizontally spaced tiers atop a pallet to form a rectangular unit load. The rectangular objects are stacked in interleaved fashion much like a mason would lay a brick wall. Stacking of the objects in an interleaved fashion serves to strengthen the unitized load. Tension bands in some cases may encompass the unitized load as well as a portion of the pallet. Such a unitized load is easily transferred with a forklift by inserting the tines of the forklift into the apertured pallet. However, with any of the prior art palletized loads once the unit load is broken to remove even one or two of the rectangular objects or packages, the structural integrity of the unit load is destroyed. The objects of the unit load then become difficult to move from one place to another and with the unit load broken, the possibility of pilferage, or loss of cartons due to cartons falling off of the pallet, is quite high.